New Traditions

So have you seen "The Elf of the Shelf". It is all over specialty catalogs, christmas websites and our local Hallmark. I had seen one last year and thought the kids were a little young to get involved with the Elf. The story goes that the elf is assigned to your home via Santa and is there to "watch" you and report back to the jolly old soul in the evenings while you sleep. Then in the morning the elf is in a different spot. The fun for the kids comes then...trying to find the elf everymorning. It's a cute story and you get to name your elf and write it in the back of the book. We (Braden and Finley) named our elf "Marshmallow" and he arrived tonight.....we read the story and the fun will begin tomorrow. I am sure Sean and I will fight over where to put him and argue over who had the best "spot". I will post pictures throughout of Marshmallow and his perched spots.
Get your here........elfontheshelf

House Update/Progress

So I haven't posted much on the house recently, because there really wasn't much to report. It seems to be going so slow right now...weather hinders working and they are working a lot on ladders and scaffolding. They had to make at least 6 girders, on the spot which takes time....email me if you want the definition of a girder. Basically it is what makes the "overhang" of the roof. They also decided to extend the roof line over the laundry room/garage connector. So that took a little time as well. Today they are putting the sheeting on the main portion of the house.....rain in the forecast tomorrow...but none next week. Hopefully that is finished next week. The garage floor is ready to pour, just waiting for the plumber to come and run some pipes in there so it will be a "heated" floor.
The shingles have been ordered as well as the garage doors. The windows only take 2 weeks to be delivered so hopefully they will be ordered next week so we can get this puppy closed in for the winter. We had the gas set up so they will have heat in there to work ALL WINTER LONG!!
I have met with the cabinet people, liked their appearance and bid...so much so that we are going to have them bid out the pantry and laundry room as well. So those will probably be ordered soon...wont need them till Feb/March, however there are a lot of cabinets and they take a while to produce. Any suggestions on my Craft "crap" Room set up? I can't decide if I want cabinets, shelves, cubbies, bins, on and on and on....
I tried to "layout" what you are looking at....hopefully if you click on the image it will enlarge.

good view of the girder on the "jut" out...

!! B U N C O !!

Christy, Alyssa, Emily and I started a BUNCO group....we each invited 3 ladies to play with us the second Tuesday of the Month.....understandably so, some weren't able to join us so instead of 4 tables of 4 we had 3 tables. The first meeting was Tuesday at my house and we had A BLAST!! After the initial...."how do we play this"....we were all keeping tally in our heads instead of on a sheet by the 2nd round. It was fun because you switch tables and partners after EVERY round...unless you are the Queen Bee winner....D and Em......

It was fun to get away with a bunch of ladies, have some food and drink, laugh and possibly win 8 dollars.....yes you heard me right....8 dollars......

See you all on the 9th!!

Dont Ask

The Forest House

While at the wedding last weekend we stayed at Grizzly Jacks Resort. It is in Utica, Illinois.....Starved Rock area. The hotel has an indoor waterpark, arcade, mini amusement park, outdoor putput area and play area. We stayed in this townhouse/condo thing which was big enough to sleep 9. The kids had a blast at the waterpart....so much so that it was a little difficult to get them out to make it to the wedding. There was a hottub, lazy river, 2 large waterslides, a baby slide, medium slide, waterfalls, zero depth pool that was a wave pool for 10 minutes every half hour, and a baby pool "Ley's Pool" as Finley called it.

In the foreground is the baby pool/slide. You can see the medium slide/zero depth/waterfalls in the background.

fountains

wavepool....fun!

Brent and Gina's wedding

Okay, these are all backwards....Last weekend (11-8) Sean was the Best Man in his friends wedding and Braden was the ring bearer....we headed to LaSalle-Peru for the festivities....It was learned that our children are dancing FOOLS....and both had their first "boy/girl" dance. Braden's was with Paige, the flower girl, and Finley's was with some random boy....geez they start young!!

aren't they two peas in a pod?

Streator Bulldog State Playoffs

After a slow start the Streator Bulldogs (Grandad's Football Team) ended their regular season 6-3, including a never before win over powerhouse Geneseo. They played their first ever HOME playoff game on a beautiful Saturday (11-1). Brady and I travelled to Streator for the game and you guessed it...they won. Their first ever playoff win....Last weekend (11-8) they travelled to Metamora and fought a hard fight, but ended up on the losing side of the game. All in all the Bulldogs had a great season!! Way to go Grandad!!

There is Grandad..the last coach coming out of the locker room (white shirt, red hat)